Palestra will thrive even without Big 5

Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky hopes to turnPenn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky hopes to turnthe Palestra into a college basketball hall of famePenn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky hopes to turnthe Palestra into a college basketball hall of fameand museum as the Big 5 faces an uncertain future The Big 5 is dead. Long live the Palestra. At first glance, such a statement might sound more than a little paradoxical, as the Palestra has been the Big 5's home since 1955. But with the relative disintegration of the City Series round-robin format from four games to two per school in 1991, the Philadelphia basketball consortium comprising the Big 5 has lost its luster. For its part, the Palestra has no intention becoming a relic. To ensure its staying power, the Palestra will undergo some major changes of both a physical and operational nature. Plans include a complete overhaul at the playing level of the arena in the short term, with the possibility of creating of a basketball museum and hall of fame further down the road. Also look for the return of men's college basketball doubleheaders, an increasingly rare commodity in the years since 1986 when official City Series doubleheaders moved to the CoreStates Spectrum, with head to head matchups played at the school's respective gymnasiums. "There is an excellent chance that [Palestra double headers] might be resurrected," Big 5 Executive Secretary Dan Baker said. "There have already been talks about a series of doubleheaders with Penn, La Salle, Drexel and St. Joseph's." Such a realignment comes in the wake of Villanova and Temple's desire to play their games either at their on-campus facilities or in the Spectrum. Furthermore, Temple plans to open its own 10,000–plus spectator venue, The Apollo of Temple. The Apollo is expected to be ready for the 1997-98 basketball season, after which the Owls will most likely play all their home games there, according to Baker. Its completion will make it the third major on-campus basketball arena in the Big 5, along with the Palestra and Villanova's duPont Pavilion. However, that still leaves three city Division I schools without a major on-campus arena. "Drexel, La Salle and St. Joseph's, for the obvious reason that they don't have an on-campus facility the size of the Palestra, are interested, but it's not as if the four schools have gotten together and tried to figure out some sort of mini-plan," Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky said. Of course, the Palestra hardly represents unfamiliar territory for La Salle and St. Joe's, who elect to play many of their important non-City Series games there. Drexel, though, would be especially warm to idea of having the chance to play more than the occasional game there. "If there's an opportunity to play in [the Palestra], why not?" Drexel Athletic Director Lou Marciani said. "Our view is that Drexel University has arrived. We here feel that we would like to be involved with more playing opportunities with schools in Philadelphia." Marciani also hopes that inclusion in future Palestra doubleheaders could lead to the possible ignition of a Drexel-Penn matchup on the basketball court and hopefully the invitation for membership to the Big 5 for the Dragons. Bilsky noted that any additional traffic in the Palestra won't just come from heightened Division I men's basketball activity, but an increase in the number of special events it hosts. These include high school basketball championships as well as exhibitions, such as a game featuring the U.S. women's national team this spring. To accommodate all this extra activity, the Palestra will undergo a series of major renovations in the near future, a project which the class of '71 has decided to sponsor in honor of its 25th reunion. Foremost among the arena's upgrades will be the construction of a new hospitality suite and a media room to replace the current makeshift press room set-up behind the visiting bleachers during games. The players' locker rooms will also be refurbished as part of the overhaul. "The things we're doing to the Palestra are necessary to make sure that as we go into the next century it continues to be what I consider to be the best college basketball arena in the country," Bilsky said. "For an eight or nine thousand seat arena, there's nothing like it." The initial renovations to be carried out represent what Bilsky calls the first phase of an "ambitious" project. The second phase of the Palestra's revamping will focus on preserving the athletic legacy the stadium has witnessed over its lifetime. "The second level is really a creative idea that hopefully we'll be able to do, and that is to make the Palestra a combination museum/hall of fame/basketball facility," Bilsky said. Bilsky envisions this aspect of the project in the mold of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Such an atmosphere would be created by the lining the arena's walls with various sorts of basketball memorabilia and dedicating its various wings to different aspects of Big 5 lore. According to Bilsky, among other benefits, such an addition could serve to help attract perspective students as part of the campus tour. However, he warns, this part of the plan is in the very early planning stages and will require the attainment of major funding before it can become a reality.

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